This invention relates to tools used in crimping machines and, more specifically, relates to improvements in tools used in crimping machines, which increase the productivity of the crimping machines, lower the costs involved in replacing worn out tools, and allow for higher efficiency and quality control of the executed connections.
In the electric field, the connections between wire and wire, cable and cable, or cable and wire have been performed by a crimping system, which comprises a semiautomatic machine that, in a single operation, feeds, cuts, bends and crimps cables with wires or cables and wires with electric terminals for general applications.
A crimping machine generally includes an electrical module and a pneumatic module, which are associated with a support for a metal band reel which is fed into the support module of cutting tools.
The tool support module relates to the operating mechanism of crimping and, by this reason, allows for the exchange of tools, which are appropriate for each desired operation.
Although these machines are a technological improvement for making electrical connections, since it has completely replaced welding, they have considerable disadvantages in connection with the tools that they use. The machines use tools made from tool-steel. Each tool has an estimated life of about 300,000 crimpings, which means a one-month utilization period for an industry with a regular working hours. After this period has expired, the tool is discarded and replaced by a new one.
The tools are expensive to manufacture, because they are manufactured from prime materials of high quality and with precision. This considerably burdens small and medium manufacturers in the field.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art, and improves and increases the service life of the tools and thus the productivity of the crimping machines. The Applicant has developed improved tools for use in crimping machines, wherein each tool brings a technical advance when compared to the prior art. For example, the tool xe2x80x9cguillotine and crimpingxe2x80x9d has increased the service life by six times, i.e., has increased the crimping applications of the tool by six times. The tool xe2x80x9cprofile and crimping matrix supportxe2x80x9d, which used to be a sole piece, has a refill-blade, lowering by about 70% its cost of replacement in comparison with the prior art. The assembly xe2x80x9chammer barxe2x80x9d, which cuts, bends and prints the metal band, makes it possible for the hammer to be sharpen up to six times before its replacement, expanding its lifetime by six times, lowering the costs. The xe2x80x9canvilxe2x80x9d tool, which helps the bending of the metal band, used to be in a single milled piece, now include two pieces and two cutting blades, lowering the cost and doubling the tool service life.
As an example, the prior art tool xe2x80x9chammer bar,xe2x80x9d used for cutting, bending and printing the metal band, has a blade in one of its edges, a base lies for an eccentric piece (the hammer support), two guides at the other edge for the vertical sliding of the hammer. The blade, which corresponds to a steel bar provided with a sharp edge for the printing of the segments in the metal band, is fastened to the eccentric piece. In every printing, the cut segment is enclosed in the crimping tool, being automatically riveted in the cable or wire. The entire operation is done in a single hit.
Each time the hammer reached the end of its service life, it was replaced because the supporting tool is fastened to the machine with accurate adjustments. If the cutting edge of the hammer were sharpened, the distance between the band and the crimping tool would be modified. Thus, it was impracticable to sharpen the hammer, and it must be replaced.
In accordance with the improvements developed by the Applicant, the same tool is manufactured from a tool-steel bar, and is a support of the eccentric piece and the hammer. The tool is made in six different and standardized lengths, and compensating mechanisms are placed along the base piece of the tool, which mechanisms compensate for any sharpening provided to the hammer, in such a way as not to change the length of the whole set. Consequently, the working of the set is also not changed.
This aim is reached because the edge of the base piece is provided with a board to fasten the hammer guides and wedge or shock-absorbing plates (for compensation) which allow the variation of their sharpening. In this way, each time the guide reaches the end of its service life, the same is again brought to the manufacturer and sharpened, for example, by a 0.5 mm calculated each time, up to a five times in total. When returned to the supporting tool, compensation wedges are placed in the guide. The guides are duly adjusted in oblong hollows. Thus, a maximum sharpening up to 2.5 mm takes place, when the same are, finally, replaced by new ones. It is noted that, in such situation, a sole guide may be used six times more than the prior art guides.
Another illustrated example referring to the improvements of the present invention is related to the tool xe2x80x9cguillotine-crimpingxe2x80x9d. In the prior art, the tool has a parallelepiped base manufactured with a top head provided with a single matrix or crimping profile. The guillotine support and the guillotine are connected to the base.
At the end of the service life of the crimping profile, the entire piece is replaced, requiring installing a new base to the guillotine.
The Applicant, aiming to extended the tool""s service life, has redesigned the base, providing it with not only a support for the guillotine, but also a six-sided piece, wherein a crimping profile is provided for each side of the piece. The six profiles may be the same or they may be different. The six-sided piece not only extends the service life by six times but also allows the change of the crimping profile by turning the piece.
With another piece, the proceeding undergoes the same way, that is, the special matrix for crimping bolt, most known as xe2x80x9cHorn-Matrixxe2x80x9d, used to be a whole piece assembled in tool-steel, all tempered and corrected, containing a single crimping profile. After this profile reaches the end of its service life, the whole piece must be replaced.
The Applicant, following the previous way, has redesigned this piece. The new design includes two pieces. One piece is the base or the support while the other is a refill-blade including two crimping profiles in the edges. The two profiles may be identical, doubling its service life, or different, allowing for the flexibility of the two different operations. Such result is obtained by releasing a central axis-screw and equidistant in relation to the two profiles, turning the same and again screwing it.
It is noted on the above examples and on the previous explanations that tools lifetime reutilizing and extending is an important industrial application in the field of the crimping machines fed with metal band, because it allows for a large reduction of the relative cost, without losing the operation qualities and accuracy.